getting to visit Monet’s Garden was one of the reasons we decided on Trafalgar’s BEST OF FRANCE tour (we can not speak highly enough of our brilliant tour director Krista Taylor and great coach driver Francis and thank them so very much for a memorable journey through France)…

we visited on a Wednesday and there were quite a few people there…

such a beautiful place both inside and out…

we can only imagine how crowded the gardens would be later in the season with the parade of flowers that never ends…

standing on the Japanese bridge even without water lilies blooming was a dream come true (I wanted to bring my paper parasol but it didn’t fit in the suitcase so my fold up Monet’s Garden umbrella had to do)…we lingered a little longer and then had a bite of lunch in the village under a bright red sunbrella where we also visited a cute boutique for some cards and a slice of berry tarte…

we were delighted by the precious rabbit hopping freely around the garden…

leaving the village of Giverny and walking back to our coach I spotted a great bird refuge sign that inspired me to create a page in my French Travel Journey linking it to Art Journal Journey for their JOURNEYS theme…Erika couldn’t have picked a more inspiring theme this month as it has really helped me keep busy working in my travel journal trying to preserve some memories…(French text, heavy gesso, pan pastels, French bird refuge sign photo, used tea bag, pressed Virginia flowers)

playing with paint and gesso (regular, clear and heavy gesso) and bits of paper and peeled napkin for this 8 x 10 canvas…

thinking out loud to my husband that the piece needed something at the top he had the wonderful suggestion of adding a twig over the window (the lady is an image I have had in my files for about 8 years which was a freebie from Shabby Cottage Studio)…

we just happened to have some weathered wood that we’d brought back from a favorite beach last summer and that got my wheels turning for the finishing touches for my mixed media canvas…

a really special way to help pass these winter days is taking an online workshop with a brilliant artist… the talented and very generous Misty Mawn… there is an early sign up rate this week and you can find out all about it HERE…

the turning of the wheel of time throws me off a bit around the holidays when emotions and memories seem even more intense than a regular day which is the perfect time to escape to my art cave and play play play…

I folded this classic image around the edge of my new large art journal page gluing scraps of paper for the collage background…

a light wash of gesso adding heavy textured gesso for her hair making ridges with a plastic palette knife…

the piece for her dress was from a scrap of vintage paper stenciled with thick gesso and glued in place…

the words came about by writing quickly on a piece of scrap paper and then deciding to cut and paste each word as I often do with computer generated text…

(the bit circled on the lower left was revealed when my pages stuck together overnight peeling away a top layer)…

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"the 'L' in Love should be capitalized" ~♥~Patty Szymkowicz .....
Virginia, USA

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